Art Crime
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Stolen Dignity and the Meaning of Justice
Read more: Stolen Dignity and the Meaning of JusticeArgus founder and managing partner Tim Carpenter will give a lecture at Museum at Texas Tech University on “Stolen Dignity and the Meaning of Justice.” Drawing on decades of experience investigating cultural heritage crimes, Carpenter will examine the theft and desecration of Indigenous cultural heritage, particularly human remains, not simply as violations of law but…
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Recent Thefts in Italy Spotlight Museum Security Vulnerabilities
Read more: Recent Thefts in Italy Spotlight Museum Security VulnerabilitiesIt was the best of times, it was the worst of times. With apologies to Dickens, this phrase could well describe the past month for the TPC, the Italian Carabinieri’s elite art theft unit. On August 14, the TPC announced the successful recovery of three pieces of artwork which had been stolen last March during a late-night smash-and-grab…
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Thirteen Perfect Fugitives
Read more: Thirteen Perfect FugitivesAs St. Patrick’s Day festivities in 1990 were winding down in Boston, thirteen pieces of artwork were plucked from the walls of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum by two subjects posing as police officers. In eighty-one minutes, they stole some of the world’s most valuable pieces of artwork, including a rare Vermeer and Rembrandt’s only…
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What We Learned from the Louvre Heist: Think Like a Thief
Read more: What We Learned from the Louvre Heist: Think Like a ThiefLast week marked the three-month anniversary of the Louvre Museum robbery; arguably the most notorious art heist of the 21st-century. A daring crime that was first and foremost in the news cycle for nearly two weeks was quickly replaced by more current events. Three months later the Louvre heist merits sporadic attention in the media.…
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Still Missing…“Poppy Flowers” by Vincent van Gogh
Read more: Still Missing…“Poppy Flowers” by Vincent van GoghA year ago, in January 2025, we wrote about four paintings stolen from the Museu Chácara do Céu in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil during Carnival. Two of those paintings, a Dali and a Matisse, had been stolen before. The next month, we wrote about a Frans Hals painting, “Twee Lachende Jongens,” also known as “Two Laughing…